Tuesday, December 29, 2015

I am super excited today to share with you my first impressions of the new 2016 Moments Inked Memory Planner system by Papertrey Ink. Each of the Moments Inked Design Team members will be posting reviews this week. If you missed Ashley’s and Suzanne’s reviews from yesterday, I encourage you to check them out. Also, Nichole posted an extensive planner introduction during the December release, which is HERE. You’ll definitely want to check that out if you haven’t already. Last but not least, Audrey is also posting her review today. Lots to see!

I’m thrilled with all the changes Papertrey has made this year! There are now even more opportunities for customizing the planner to suit your own individual needs.

There are no longer daily pages included in this initial planner. This reduces the bulk considerably and gives the planner a nice, sleek profile. Note: if you loved the daily pages last year, stay tuned for alternative daily page options that will be announced in the near future.

For more detail, join me for a video walkthrough of the new planner. (Fair warning -- I'm not the cinematographer that Ashley is! Her video from yesterday is so beautifully done and informative -- a must-see!)

So, let’s talk about that binder! Gorgeous! I chose the Ebony binder to get started, but I would gladly take one of each. They all look so pretty! I’m so impressed with the overall look and feel. Very professional and sophisticated. The features have obviously been carefully designed for maximum functionality and aesthetic appeal.

Outside features include metal corners for durability (and good looks), a simple snap closure in a gold finish to match the corners, beautiful top-stitching, and an elegant embossed Moments Inked logo.

Inside features include a pen/pencil loop, storage flaps/pockets, gold binder rings, and a notepad insert.

I enjoyed using the spiral-bound planner last year, but I do think I prefer a binder system. I tend to want to rearrange/add/subtract somewhat frequently, which will be much easier with the binder format. I also just like the elegance of the binder.

The binder pages are the same for both the spiral-bound and the binder version, so the following applies to both systems. I really like that the day columns on the new weekly spreads are no longer divided into morning, afternoon, and evening. As a stay-at-home mom of three busy kids, the weekday evening section tended to be overflowing, while the morning and afternoon sections were often unused. And when does afternoon officially become evening anyway <grin>? I plan to experiment with the weekly spread, maybe divide the day columns into two sections, one for calendar and one for tasks. Or I may divide into categories — family, personal, and blog. Either way, I appreciate the ability to tailor those columns to my needs instead of trying to force things into the morning, afternoon, and evening parameters.

I’m glad to see that two of my favorite features have remained:

1) the motivational quotes at the beginning of each month — what a great opportunity to reflect on an encouraging phrase or quote!

2) the goals page at the beginning. I found myself referring to this frequently throughout this past year to check on my progress and re-focus as needed. Some of my accomplishments likely wouldn’t have happened had I not written them down here. The goals page also, oddly, allowed me to let go of at least one thing that really needed to go. I’ve been trying to do Project Life for at least four years now. Instead of being discouraged by yet another year of “failing” at it, the goals page has helped me realize that it’s time to just let it go.

I’m very curious to see what Nichole has planned for the daily page alternative. I didn’t use large parts of the daily page regularly, so I don’t altogether mind that they’re gone, but I would still like to include daily gratitude and simple memory keeping in my 2016 planner. We’ll see what comes out in the months ahead!

Who else was excited that Week One of the new planner has already begun? Here’s a look at the current week (I had to break in the new planner right away!):

I’m planning to continue with weekly Bible verse journaling this year. For now, I’m continuing to use the weekly verse suggestions that I found on the Oak Tree Community Church website.

Conveniently, the first verse, Psalm 119:105, is included in Papertrey’s Light of Life stamp set. I decided to create a lighthouse scene for the Scripture using images from Guiding Lights. Since the darker colors tend to show through a little on the other side of the linen paper, I stamped off once for the red and black.

The black divider is one that I used last year in the spiral-bound planner. I die-cut it from a vinyl two-pocket folder that I picked up at an office supply store using the Moments Inked: Tabbed Listdie. For now, to adapt it to the binder system. I just punched holes in the other side.

Once my kids’ activities start up again after the holidays, I won’t have nearly this much real estate for decorating, so I took full advantage of it this week! The New Year’s cluster was done with a bunch of stamps and dies. The product list is for reference and not meant to overwhelm at all! The idea is to use things you already have.

Sometime last year, I started using the monthly spread as a blog calendar, and plan to continue with that this year. I’ve used a mixture of repositionable Avery circle labels (colored with Copics) and stamped die-cuts using the Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps and Monthly Moments: Tabbed dies. The tabbed die-cuts are also stamped with a “post live @“ frame from the Moments Inked: Blog Banners stamp set. I suppose technically they are upside-down, but this way they don't cover up the dates!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Reverse Confetti has announced some exciting news for 2016 -- check it all out on the Reverse Confetti blog!

I'm super excited to be part of the Confetti Crew design team for another term, and look forward to wonderful things in 2016!

It's also my day to post a sample for Reverse Confetti's monthly Sketch For You To Try challenge, which closes tomorrow, December 29, at noon CST. It's not too late to get your entry in! Link-up and info is all posted HERE.

Here's the December sketch:

And here's my take on it:

The focal point was stamped with a sentiment from With Love in Versamark and white embossed onto a circle that I die-cut using a circle die from the Donut You Know Confetti Cuts die set.

I sponged an ombre effect using turquoise, teal, and navy inks. I splashed with water and splattered on some white ink for an artsy effect.

The partial circle in vellum that peeks out from behind the diagonal stripe panel was die-cut with one of the dies in the Circles 'N Scallops set.

The rest is just layers of patterned paper according to the sketch. I used a beautiful new-ish Basic Grey 6x6 paper collection called Typeset.

The watercolored background is one that I've had on hand for months, so I can't remember what I used to create it. For the tag base, I used one of the dies in Reverse Confetti's Gift Card Holder Tag die set. The little grommet at the top was die-cut using the Hang Ups Confetti Cuts. I stitched on a horizontal band of linen vellum, then layered on some silver metallic snowflakes from the Let It Snow Confetti Cuts set. The sentiment was done with Winter Words Confetti Cuts and a Winter Word Coordinates stamp. Black pearl accents are from Kaisercraft.

Here's a look at the shine from the metallic snowflakes, as well as the Wink of Stella shimmer on the word "snow."

Heather's XOXO is packed with heart images and sentiments. In addition to these brushstroke hearts and handwritten sentiment, there are also conversation hearts and generously sized word sentiments for pairing with the die-cuts. I used one of the Confetti Toss patterns from last month as a quick, colorful background.